Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #29)(98)

“I can still hear the sound he made just before he breathed fire as we ran through the trees. I thought he would burn us before we could race clear of him,” Ru said.

“We would have lost one, or all of us, but one of the other Harlequin must have moved and drawn his attention. If it was done to save us, I wish I knew whose name to praise, but I think it was carelessness, or simple bad luck that turned his attention to them and away from us. It gave us enough time to be out of the range for his fire,” Rodina said.

Edward said, “So you could tell us how far away we need to be for safety?”

“Not down to the inch, but yes,” she said.

“Sorry, Jean-Claude, but that was important to ask,” Edward.

“Questions that help us plan are fine,” Jean-Claude said, with no nicknames, no French, just a bare sentence. It almost didn’t sound like him, but Edward was my friend, not his, I guess.

“Before we circled around to the planned vantage point we heard the screaming,” Ru said.

“When we turned, there was a burning figure on the ground at Drakon’s haunches,” Rodina said.

“We saw no other movement even with leopard eyes, so we assumed the others were in hiding, or had run, like we had, far enough to be out of range,” Ru said.

“He bellowed for us to come out and face him, called us cowards and worse,” Rodina said. “I admit to a moment of doubt, and then we saw him shudder from the top of his head, down that snakelike neck, to the heaviness of his body. It made his tail shake among the leaves and small trees with a great, dry sound like some enormous rattlesnake.”

I wanted to ask when she’d seen rattlesnakes since they were a New World snake, but I let it go. It was an idle question and wouldn’t help us defeat Deimos.

“Then he began to fall,” Rodina said, “to shrink until he was human-sized. The magic that our evil queen had put inside us had worked. We started to run toward him, because as long as it lasted he would be unable to become his dragon. We could kill him.”

“But you didn’t kill him,” I said.

“We never got the chance. The three Harlequin who had survived his fire appeared out of the darkness and attacked him. We raced toward them, afraid they would finish him before we could arrive, but we never got close enough to join them. There was a sound like a modern gun, though then we had no idea what it could be. We could not have guessed that it was the shell of the earth itself breaking open.”

“An earthquake, are you saying an earthquake saved Deimos?”

“It didn’t save him, the earth split open underneath him and the three Harlequin.” She shook her head, as if the memory were weighing on her.

Ru said, “We watched our fellow Harlequin try to run to safety, but when the very ground underneath your feet is not to be trusted there is no safety. We watched the first one fall into a great tear in the earth. Deimos didn’t run, he reached his arms toward the heavens and was calling out. We could not hear his words. Then the ground collapsed underneath his feet and he fell into darkness.”

“We think he was calling for Ares to save him,” Rodina said, “but we thought we would never know for certain. I will ask him when we find him.”

“How about we just kill him,” Edward said.

She gave him one of the most disdainful looks I’d ever seen aimed at him. “If that is all we can do, of course, but if we have the opportunity to question him I want to know where he has been all these long years. How he escaped. How he put together the plan to come here to challenge Jean-Claude. He was not a deep thinker, and no amount of time will change that.”

“You think he has an accomplice?” I asked.

“At least one, maybe more.”

“You think he’s found a human servant?” Jake asked.

“I do not know, but if he is here completely on his own, I would be much surprised.”

“Can we ask questions now?” Peter asked.

“If they help us find and destroy our enemy,” Jean-Claude said.

“You talked about a noise that Deimos made before he breathed fire, did he make it every time?”

“Yes,” she said.

Richard said, “You mentioned a rumble in the body when you were right beside him, that was his body getting ready to breathe fire.”

“We did,” she said.

“Did you see anything in his mouth that coincided with the clicking noise?”

“It has been thousands of years since that night, Ulfric.”

“I know it’s asking a lot for you to remember such small details, but I wouldn’t ask you to try if it wasn’t important, Rodina.”

“What are you hoping we will remember?” Ru asked.

I answered, “We’re trying to figure out if we can hit Deimos with modern weapons if the Greek fire will blow all over us and maybe innocent bystanders.”

“How does the clicking noise help you decide that?” Ru asked.

“You also mentioned the body rumbling before he breathed fire,” Richard said.

“I still don’t understand how that will help us decide if modern weapons will be safe against Deimos,” Ru said.

“Antitank weapons especially,” I said.

“If arrows hurt him but didn’t make him leak fire, then how about just modern bullets?” Edward asked.